ACD systems are systems used in conjunction with a telephone switching system for routing incoming calls to any of a group of agents. Such systems are typically used to handle incoming calls to airline reservation offices, telephone company order desks, customer service departments for department stores, cable, telephone or credit card companies, etc. Telephones used by agents are typically grouped in hunt groups, and an ACD supervisor system distributes incoming calls equally among the agents of the group. If there are more incoming calls than available agents, the calls are routed to recordings, and are queued. Calls that are queued are routed to an agent as soon as one becomes available.
It has been found that sometimes the volume of calls is so high that the waiting time for a call to be answered is excessive, and callers become frustrated. This can cause callers to hang up, and create bad customer relations, which can ultimately result in lost sales.